Presented here is an emaki (horizontal picture scroll) that depicts a battle formation procession setting off for the battlefield. It is 13 meters long. At first sight, it resembles the Kan’ei Gyōkoki (Record of an imperial visit in the Kan’ei period), in which pictures and letters are printed in type. However, the characters and horses were not printed in type, but were affixed using stamps. The actual number of stamps used is surprisingly small. The 54 mounted soldiers in the scroll were created from just five stamps, but ...

This epic novel, entitled Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (Satomi and the eight “dogs”) is a yomihon, or reading book, one of the popular genres of Edo-period (1600-1867) prose fiction. The story depicts the adventures of eight samurais whose last names begin with the Japanese word for dog. The author, Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848), also known as Kyokutei Bakin, worked around 30 years on this, his best-known work. This copy is a first printing, owned by Bakin himself, that shows his corrections of misspellings in the original printing.

The term ukiyo-e, literally “pictures of the floating world,” refers to a genre of Japanese artwork that flourished in the Edo period (1600–1868). As the phrase “floating world” suggests, with its roots in the ephemeral worldview of Buddhism, ukiyo-e captured the fleeting dynamics of contemporary urban life. While being accessible and catering to “common” tastes, the artistic and technical details of these prints show remarkable sophistication, their subjects ranging from portraits of courtesans and actors to classical literature. The designer of this print is not known with certainty, but ...

The term ukiyo-e, literally “pictures of the floating world,” refers to a genre of Japanese artwork that flourished in the Edo period (1600–1868). As the phrase “floating world” suggests, with its roots in the ephemeral worldview of Buddhism, ukiyo-e captured the fleeting dynamics of contemporary urban life. While being accessible and catering to “common” tastes, the artistic and technical details of these prints show remarkable sophistication, their subjects ranging from portraits of courtesans and actors to classical literature. These two prints are by Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764). The larger ...

The term ukiyo-e, literally “pictures of the floating world,” refers to a genre of Japanese artwork that flourished in the Edo period (1600–1868). As the phrase “floating world” suggests, with its roots in the ephemeral worldview of Buddhism, ukiyo-e captured the fleeting dynamics of contemporary urban life. While being accessible and catering to “common” tastes, the artistic and technical details of these prints show remarkable sophistication, their subjects ranging from portraits of courtesans and actors to classical literature. This is a preliminary sketch that may have been intended for ...